Technical Field
This invention relates generally to a boundary between zones, and, more specifically to a technique for changing a boundary between zones.
Related Art
There are many cases in which we would like to let a robot provide services when a user is approaching the robot. For example, the following situations are considered: in a case where a user is approaching a robot, the robot talks with a user or takes an action to the user in a different manner, depending on a distance between the robot and the user; and in a case where a user is approaching a robot more closely, the robot starts a question-and-answer session.
Some types of robots can detect a distance between the robot and a target object using a sensor, such as a distance sensor or depth sensor, and then identify the number of target objects in a plurality of zones and a movement of each target object between two zones among a plurality of zones.
The above-mentioned sensors can measure the distance using infrared or supersonic waves. However, these sensors employed on commercial level robots provide lower performance. Accordingly, it is likely that these sensors have perturbation in measured data affected by noise.
This noise may include a chattering problem on a zone detection in a case where services from a robot depend on a distance between the robot and a target object and the target object is near a boundary between zones.